


Making Connections

by ancarett



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Awesome Leia, Companionable Snark, F/M, Gen, Humor, POV Leia Organa, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6628396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancarett/pseuds/ancarett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia learns why you should never say "I have a bad feeling about this" especially when you're Force-sensitive and you have a brother who's just handed you the controls of a newly-repaired space shuttle. Artoo learns that droids should always secure themselves upon takeoff. Han and Luke? They should've already learned their lessons by now but a refresher isn't out of the question.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making Connections

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alexcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/gifts).



> Alexcat, you asked for adventure, humour and a little fun for our original trilogy leads. Here's hoping this fits the bill at least a little!

"Leia, could you hand me that power coupling?" Luke's voice came from underneath the pilot's console of the battered scout ship where most of his body was also hidden, only a patiently extended arm and two bent legs betraying his location halfway into the nose of the ship he was helping to refit..

Despite her bad mood, Leia smiled as she picked up the component, squatted between the two seats and placed the coupling in Luke's outstretched hand. A question sparked inside her as she stepped back to give her brother room to work.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked as Luke's hand withdrew from sight, presumably to fit the coupling into place. A mechanical click confirmed Leia's assessment as did the sight of Luke's inverted face as he wormed his way out from the access panel. 

"I knew it from the Force, Leia," Luke said as he stood up and began activating the scout ship's main console, grinning slightly as the screens all flared to life.

"Looks good, Artoo," he shouted over his shoulder to the droid plugged into the engineering console amidships. "Run a quick diagnostic to check, would ya?"

Pivoting on one heel, he focused more closely on his sister. "What's wrong, Leia?"

"Nothing," Leia replied in her most convincing, diplomatic voice, tamping down the flares of discontent and annoyance popping in her mind that had driven her from the logistics meeting to this shuttle.

Luke arched one eyebrow as he plopped himself down in the pilot's seat, indicating that his twin wasn't fooling him, not even a little bit.

"Fine," Leia huffed with more of a smile at his patient insight than irritation at how quickly he saw through her pretence. She settled herself gracefully in the other chair beside him, rotating it so that she faced the window and the open field littered with other New Republic spacecraft in various stages of repairs. That this position allowed her to avoid her brother's all-too watchful gaze was incidental, she told herself.

They sat together quietly for a few minutes. Leia felt herself relaxing into the seat, letting the recent tensions recede. In their absence, she sensed a deeper question inside herself, sparked by Luke's growing powers in the Force that left her feeling so. . . well, not inadequate, but incapable. Finally, quiet inwardly as well as outwardly, Leia spoke.

"It's just, how is it that I've never been able to replicate that sensing of people through the Force that you do so naturally. I heard you that once, at Bespin, and a few other times when you've called out to me but, otherwise, nothing. Yet, there you are, buried half inside a ship and you know it's me without a word on my part." The rush of words from Leia ended as she spun the chair full circle and shifted, finally, to face Luke, knowing he would hear more than the frustration the confession superficially expressed. She wasn't wrong.

Clad in a dusty mechanic's overall, her brother appeared ordinary and unassuming, yet the lightsaber he carried, clipped to a belt loop, complicated that impression. His smile was gentle, almost invisible, but the concern was evident as he leaned forward, covering one of her hands on her knee with his own. "It's not for any lack of talent or even lack of trying, Leia. But you lack training. You know this."

Leia's eyes dropped to their hands. "I know, it's just. . . I'm never going to have the time. We thought blowing up the first Death Star was a big deal. Blowing up the second and getting rid of the emperor? Let's just say that restoring the Republic is real enough that everyone wants my input all of the time."

Luke's hand gently turned hers over to interlace his fingers with hers and she felt a calm, energizing flow push through that link. "It's funny to think we once believed that defeating the emperor would solve everything, isn't it?" Luke asked.

Leia looked up at that to meet her brother's regard, his blue eyes flickering between sympathy and sorrow at the memories of their struggles with the Rebellion. "I don't know that I ever believed that," she observed dryly. "But I resent that I still lose so much time with you, with Han. . . ."

The last point was what stung the most. Leia recalled the bitter words she had exchanged with Han ten days ago as he prepped the Falcon for departure. "Didn't think you'd make it out to say goodbye, sweetheart," he'd drawled. The worst thing was is that she almost hadn't, with a personnel crisis and concerns about accidental contamination of the water supply.

She shook off the wistful contemplation: nothing came of dwelling on the past. Leia gave Luke's hand a tight squeeze and then released it, moving to lean on the newly repaired scout console and look upon the hive of activity that was the base towards the end of the afternoon. The field was crowded with technicians, pilots and droids fixing, towing and flying a motley collection of fighters, freighters and other small ships serving as one part of the expanding Republic's overstretched fleet. Every now and then, knots of traffic formed as busy workers concentrated on their tasks to the exclusion of everything else around them.

Leia felt Luke come to stand beside her, taking in the view outside the scout ship. They stood together, silently, for some time, until Artoo's whistling spurred them both to movement. "Great to hear that we got it fixed, Artoo! Let's get ready to do a little test run, okay?"

Luke turned to his sister with a hopeful look. "Want to come along? It won't be long, I promise. We're just testing how the stabilizers are working now that nav control's been overhauled. It'll be fun!"

"I don't know," Leia deadpanned. "Maybe I have a bad feeling about this?"

Luke's response was a comical frown. "Don't say that. Don't ever say that," he joked before raising an eyebrow questioningly as he gestured to the pilot's seat. "I'll even let you pilot us out if you want."

Leia sighed, briefly contemplating the ever-growing backlog of administrative tasks awaiting her back in the offices where she spent most of her days, shuttling between meetings and briefings. It could all wait, just a little while longer. "Sure thing, farm boy," she replied, slipping into the seat and toggling the comm switch to clear their departure.

Luke grinned broadly as he loped out of the cockpit into the rear of the small shuttle, letting Artoo know the decision as he prepared for take-off. In short order he was back beside her in the cockpit, dropping into the co-pilot's seat as Leia deftly maneuvered the ship off and through the atmosphere, streaking into the darkness beyond.

"Nothing like it, is there?" he asked as they followed the flight path up and away from Kelnont and the tens of thousands serving the new Republic struggling to emerge from the empire's shadow. Leia steered the shuttle easily, calling out to some of the near-orbit patrols and then pushing the repaired ship on a trajectory arcing towards the outer planets of the system.

Beside her, Luke adjusted the engine's settings, sparking a deep hum from the deckplates below. "Sounds good," he commented as he relaxed back and reveled in the ship's smooth passage.

"Feels good," Leia observed with a bright smile as she accelerated the shuttle on a path away from the steady stream of freighters and couriers supplying the busy base as well as the substantial civilian traffic that the commercial planet supported. Slowly the comm chatter died down to a few Republic buoys, pinging their location, countered by Artoo's occasional commentary.

"Feel that?" Luke asked after several minutes of Leia's piloting took them past the modest asteroid belt.

Leia shook herself out of her reverie and quickly took stock of the ship. Course, systems: all were optimal. "No," she responded with a bit of alarm and one hand moving to the comm switch, wondering what problem her brother had identified that she'd missed.

"Don't worry about the shuttle," Luke said, turning his seat to face his sister. "She's fine. I asked about what you're feeling. Stretch out - with the Force."

Leia stilled at his words. "But we're in the midst of nothing," she protested. "What's there to sense?"

Luke's silent smile was his only answer and just a bit annoying, Leia noted to herself. But she automatically dropped the shuttle's forward thrust to nothing before closing her eyes to try and reach out with the Force.

For a long while, a frustrating long while, she felt nothing at all or almost nothing worth remarking: just her own life force, her sibling's brilliant blaze in the Force beside her. Leia opened her mouth to sarcastically demand just what she was supposed to feel, but she tamped that impulse down and sought out the calm flow that the Force promised to those who waited.

Time seemed to spin out endlessly as she connected to that power within herself. Then, as the moments stretched out further, she sensed beyond the cockpit a few tantalizing tidbits of life. In the crew cabin, she sensed a small field insect, confused as it roused in the dusty cupboard corner. Above it, lazy thrums of growth pulsed from an abandoned root vegetable in a darkened drawer, sprouting in hopes of spring planting.

Leia wanted to comment on these small surprises but she sensed that Luke was still waiting. For what? "What else could I possibly find?" Leia grumbled. She felt more than heard Luke's chuckle beside her. "You are _not_ helping!"

At his belly laugh, she couldn't help the smile that rose to her lips. When she saw Luke at Republic meetings, he never betrayed anything beyond perfect composure and patient certainty. These rare moments when they could get away from responsibilities and simply be? These were to be treasured.

"Still not helping," Leia grumbled, but she released her hands from the controls of shuttle entirely and sought to stretch her unpracticed Force senses further. She could feel her own anxiety regarding the passing of time bubble up inside her. Leia let a grumble escape as her lips and was on the verge of rising violently from her seat when Luke's voice softly intervened.

"Remember Bespin. Remember how you found me hanging from the bottom of Cloud City? I called but you were the one who heard me," her brother said. "You don't have to push yourself into the Force. You just have to open yourself to it and the connections will flow."

Leia nodded, still not entirely certain of what Luke meant or how she could do this. She opened her eyes and took in the blackness before her, so different from that day fleeing Cloud City in the cockpit of the Falcon with Chewie beside her and raging grief over Han's fate colouring everything. . .

"Han," she breathed. "Han!"

The word rose to a shout and her hands flew forward to the shuttle's control, spinning the small ship on a new course at maximum speed.

"Han's in trouble," Leia explained as she pushed the ship as hard as she could. Luke was nodding as he vaulted himself out of the copilot's seat and back towards the gunner's turret.

"Artoo, let the patrols know what's up and warm up the firing computers! And get our long-range sensors at it. We need to know what we're up against!"

Leia concentrated on the feel of the shuttle's yoke, pushing the little ship as hard as she could. Chatter blossomed from the speakers but she let Luke field most of the questions as she strained to maintain that vital link to Han. She could feel his tension and incredulity flowing into her, pulling her closer to him in the Falcon just on the edge of the system.

"It's a light cruiser," Leia called back to Luke. "I think the Falcon's comm system got hit. About a dozen TIE fighters have been launched."

As she spoke, the holdout imperial ship began to come into focus, dead ahead, awkwardly zigging and zagging as it released fighters, chasing down the swiftly spinning Millennium Falcon. Leia's piloting was bringing them in at an odd tangent, none of the fighters appeared to notice the shuttle as she swept in behind the last wave.

"Almost got 'em," Luke shouted from his turret. The sound of energy emissions burst out from the shuttle's midsections. Its cannons were small, designed only for light duty, but enough to take out fighters when wielded by a gunner with Luke's experience.

One TIE fighter flared into nothingness and a second spun wildly out of control, crashing into the belly of the cruiser where a double explosion suggested it did some damage to the larger ship. A bright flare of energy burst from the cruiser, aiming at the Falcon's glowing engines, but Han's uncanny piloting steered the beleaguered ship away from the powerful shot.

Leia growled and pushed the shuttle forward into the adjusting flow of TIE fighters. Half of the small ships kept their focus on the Falcon while the others turned to engage with Luke and Leia's ship.

"Let's see what you can do," Leia said, as she shifted their ship into a series of rolls and dives, her feet braced against the deckplates to maintain her balance. She heard an electronic howl from further back in the ship, followed by a decided thump.

"Watch it, Artoo," Luke yelled. "Hang onto something and don't let go!"

Leia could feel Han's heartbeat as if it were her own, she sensed his anger and determination. "It was an ambush," Leia shouted back to Luke, "they were picking off Republic ships coming out of hyperspace here."

She piloted the shuttle to a plane above the fighters still focusing on the Falcon, allowing Luke to get off a burst of shots, taking out two more. Bright lights flashed around her and the shuttle lurched suddenly forward. Without thinking, Leia turned her nimble ship into a hard loop. Artoo thumped again behind her with a wailing screech.

"Go low," Luke shouted. "Get us beneath them!"

When they came out of the loop, the shuttle was in perfect position and Luke squeezed off a handful of shots, disabling two fighters before exploding a third.

"Republic shuttle, this is Gold Squadron. Can you use some help?" The voice was young but steady as a formation of Republic fighters raced into view. Half of them turned their attention to the cruiser while the others began to target the outnumbered TIEs.

"Yes, we sure can," Leia managed to respond as she wrenched her ship suddenly to the left, spinning it to line up one of the fighters trying to target the Falcon. Simultaneously, shots from the shuttle's guns and the Y-wing hit the outnumbered imperial ship's core - the explosion was the first of several as the Republic forces turned the tide.

A larger Republic cruiser hove into view, swallowing up the top half of Leia's viewscreen and the fight was over. "We did it!" Leia carolled but worry still furrowed her brow.

"What's up with Han and Chewie?" Luke asked. Leia heard him unbuckle himself and make his way back forward as she steered the shuttle to parallel the racing Falcon.

As they pulled up alongside the freighter, Leia could see a charred and mangled comm relay. "Looks like they're incommunicado," she commented.

Luke nodded from the copilot's seat. "We'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way," he said. "Get us a bit further ahead. I know they can see us but then we can signal."

"No," Leia interrupted. "Let me try something." She reached inside her for the connection she had felt, that glowing sensation that had sparked their headlong rush halfway across the solar system. It linked her to Han. She could feel his snapping spirit, his dissipating panic and snarling anger at the damage his beloved ship had sustained. Leia moved past those to touch at his essence.

It was as if she was right there with him in the Falcon's cockpit. Chewie loomed large to his right while Han kept up a steady rant while he pushed the engines as hard as he could on a path towards the base, towards safety. Towards her.

Leia almost lost her link with Han at that point. She felt his concern, his yearning, his desire, bubbling up behind twinges of outrage. She almost laughed at the familiarity of all of these contradictions, blended within his unique presence. "Han," she thought, intensely and deeply.

"Leia," she felt him exhale across the void. "Wait. Waitamoment, Leia?"

The Falcon careened slightly on its flight path before evening out. Leia swore she could hear Chewie call out and then chuckle at Han's confusion. At this point, the stress of concentrating on too many things intervened and she felt the clear connection fray and unwind before finding herself solely focused on the shuttle she was piloting.

"Great job, Leia," Luke commented, "but how about I take over piloting for now?"

"Sure," Leia said. She gratefully ceded control to her brother who took over controls from his seat while he updated ground control about the Falcon's situation. She felt somewhat detached; almost boneless with the passing of the crisis. Now there was only the pulsing urgency to be back on Kelnont to watch that maddening smuggler lope down out of the Falcon and into her arms which might either wrap around him fiercely or move to wring his neck.

"We're both cleared for landing - they've got a binary line to the Falcon and Chewie says they're mostly fine, just shook up and in need of a new main comm unit," Luke advised. "Although Artoo may take a bit longer to forgive you for that rough ride." 

An emphatic warble from the cockpit entrance confirmed Luke's assessment. Leia rotated her seat to give Artoo a quick once-over. He appeared to have a dent on his dome and a scratch along one arm. Leia winced.

"Sorry, Artoo," she apologized. "It was unavoidable."

Although she wasn't as fluent in Artoo's dialect as Luke, Leia was certain that his answering whistle disputed just how unavoidable the bumps and bangs had been.

"Don't listen to him," Luke advised, "if we hadn't been practicing with your Force-sensing, that cruiser might have done a lot more damage to the Falcon and a lot else."

Leia shuddered at that reminder. One part of her clamoured to head back to the captured cruiser and find out if some Moff somewhere had delusions of imperial revival that the Republic would have to counter. For now she was content to leave securing the cruiser and its crew to Admiral Ackbar and his crews. No doubt there'd be a briefing or three scheduled before Luke landed the shuttle but Leia was also determined to not be drawn off into her duties immediately on landing. She had to get her hands on a certain smuggler, first off!

One question still nagged at the back of her mind as Luke maneuvered the shuttle into the atmosphere a watchful distance behind the Falcon. "You didn't know that Han and Chewie were in trouble when you were after me to do more with the Force, did you?"

Luke's surprise at her question was genuine. "No. Not a bit. I was only thinking that getting you away from all of this -" he used one free hand to sweep forward, pointing to the distant base starting to come into view, as he steered into the final approach "you would be able to find some peace, some grounding, back in the Force."

"Not exactly peaceful," Leia observed, "but probably still exactly what I needed."

At Luke's sidelong glance, Leia elaborated. "I'm not saying that I'm going to train as a Jedi. I am saying that I want to carve a little space in my life to, well, _live_. Time with you. Time with people. . . ."

"Time with Han?" Luke slyly asked as the shuttle settled down in the field with nary a thump and he thumbed the lever to open the hatch.

"I'll be right behind you," Luke urged as Leia levered herself out of the pilot's seat and past a still indignant Artoo.

"I'll know," Leia replied, tapping her chest lightly. "Don't forget, you showed me today how to make these connections. I'll never lose this connection to you _or_ to Han."

With a light laugh, Leia was out of the cockpit and peltering down the ramp, heedless of anything but the tug on her heart leading her to the next landing bay where a grumbling Corellian was demanding to know just where her royal hignessness had gotten herself to _now_.


End file.
